Angolan gov’t takes ownership of Unitel S.A. from billionaire businesswoman Isabel dos Santos

Feyisayo Ajayi -

The Angolan government, led by President Joao Lourenco, has seized shares in Unitel S.A., the country’s leading mobile telecommunications company, from billionaire businesswoman Isabel dos Santos and one of her deceased father’s associates, Leopoldino Fragoso do Nascimento.

The latest development saw the Angolan government effectively nationalize Unitel following an order issued by the Attorney General’s Office in January that saw dos Santos and Fragoso do Nascimento lose control of a total 50-percent stake in the telecommunications company.

While commenting on the decision to take control of the telecom operator, appropriating the shares belonging to Isabel dos Santos and Nascimento, Lourenco stated that the nationalization of Angola’s primary telecom operator will ensure the business’s continuity as a going concern.

“The nationalization of Angola’s main telecom operator aims to ensure the taking of decisions necessary for the continuity of the business through a more efficient, transparent management model aligned with the company’s strategic interest,” he said.

The Angolan government’s decision to seize Isabel dos Santos’ shares is part of Lourenco’s broad anticorruption campaign, as well as his large-scale purge of the dos Santos administration.

Isabel dos Santos was once considered Africa’s wealthiest woman, according to Forbes magazine, with a net worth of more than $2 billion. However, she was removed from the list in January 2021 after her bank accounts and assets were seized in Angola, Portugal, and the Netherlands.

The United States also sanctioned her for her involvement in corruption and misappropriation of public funds for personal gain while she was chairwoman of Angola’s state-owned oil company, Sonangol.

In July 2021, a court in the Netherlands ordered her to hand over to Angola shares in the Portuguese oil company Galp Energia worth $500 million after she was found guilty of exploiting the country’s oil wealth.